Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Oct 04/04) - Lisea Atagoyuk and her family, moved to Qikiqtarjuaq for work and a better life in June.

They're among thousands of Nunavummiut desperate to find a place to live. Last week, the government and NTI unveiled a $1.9 billion, 10-year Housing Action Plan to tackle the territory's housing crisis.

Lisea Atagoyuk, left, posed for a picture with her family at Inuksuit School on Wednesday. With Lisea is her daughter Carmen, baby Levinia (in Carmen's arms) and her son Hector. The family has been living in a tent in Qikiqtarjuaq. - photo courtesy of Markosie Aningmiuq

It won't be any help for Atagoyuk and her family, common-law husband Billy and their children: Carmen, 17, Hector, 4, and one-year-old baby Levinia. They ended up living in a tent after bouncing from one friends' house to another. Lisea's 13-year-old son Stanley still lives in Panniqtuuq.

"Housing told me to wait for three months," Lisea said from the Northern Store where she works full-time. "I'm still waiting."

Right now, they are housesitting for a person in the community who saw them living in their tent and wanted to help. But in a few days, they will have to move out again, probably back to the tent.

"We've been lucky the polar bears haven't come around," Lisea said. "Yes, I want a house. A house with four bedrooms. You want to buy me one?" she said with a laugh.

Abandoned staff house

Sometimes laughter is the only way to cope.

Her baby Levinia is in day care while she works, and Billy took some part-time work with Canadrill. Four-year-old Hector comes to work with Lisea most days and "plays around outside."

Lisea has eyed an abandoned Government of Nunavut staff house in town, but it sits vacant and locked up.

Practically everyone in town knows the plight of this family, but like far too many Inuit in Nunavut, they remain homeless.

Help needed now

On Wednesday the Nunavut Housing Corporation and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI) released an ambitious 10-year action plan, demanding action from the federal government.

Housing Minister Peter Kilabuk said the report is a way for "our voice to be heard."

The plan has been given to Department of Indian and Northern Affairs minister Andy Scott and Prime Minister Paul Martin.

The plan points out $3.8 billion in on-reserve housing money invested in Canadian aboriginals over the last 10 years, but the Inuit of Nunavut have not received any social housing money from the federal government since 1993.

According to the report, Nunavut needs 3,000 public housing units immediately to address housing woes.

NTI President Paul Kaludjak called this action plan an important "first step."

Meanwhile, Lisea and her family continue to be thankful for every warm bed, every good night's sleep and every shower they can get.

The plan

- The 10-year Housing Action Plan suggests $1.9 billion is needed from the federal government to remedy Nunavut's housing crisis.

- The 10-year plan proposes a partnership between federal, territorial and Inuit stakeholders and the creation of Inuit Social Housing Trust.

- The Trust will be an Inuit-controlled investment foundation.

- The Trust will oversee the following key areas: number of new units built, number of older units demolished, number of older units renovated, number of individuals on a list, the number of Inuit employed during construction, number of construction jobs created.

--Information provided by Nunavut Housing Corporation

housing in nunavut:

-- 54 per cent of Inuit in Nunavut live in overcrowded conditions.

-- 45 per cent of Nunavut's dwellings are public housing units. Over 99 per cent of the tenants in these dwellings are Inuit.

-- 50 per cent of public housing units in Nunavut are 25-years-old.

-- In addition to existing levels of overcrowding, Nunavut also has a birth rate more than twice the Canadian average. The population of Nunavut, currently 28,000, is expected to reach 38,000 by 2016.

-- Information courtesy of the Nunavut Housing Corporation and

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.